What a week!

Life at GREAT LAKES is always eventful. Notice how I didn’t say interesting or exciting. But, in all fairness, it is eventful- there is something to look forward to everyday. But the week I am going to write about is one that definitely deserves special mention.

So, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to my latest post. I know it’s been long overdue and I shall not dwell into the reasons. Well, the saying goes-‘it’s better late than never…’

The week started with a lecture from Dr. Eli Goldratt- if the name sounds familiar and you can’t place him- he’s the man behind the theory of constraints and the author of many bestsellers including ‘goal’. The sheer energy and passion that Dr. Goldratt brought to the class was unparallel. He is on a mission to make management a hard science like physics or chemistry. He urged us to question everything and take nothing for granted. To quote him “You know your mother loves you. But don’t trust your instincts- question it” This Israeli management consultant spoke with a sense of conviction that got us nothing short of inspired. Speaking of conviction, two recent guest lecturers that I was especially impressed with were Ms. Kiran Bedi (IPS) and Dr. Subramanya Swamy (Janata Party). As diverse as these speakers may seem, there is an underlying commonality- the conviction to cause.

Well, not all guest lectures are interesting. We do come across some speakers that, for lack of a better word, are simply boring. But all it takes is one lecture to get inspired. And in my opinion that is the true vision of our Uncle Bala.

Later in the week, we hosted our flagship event ‘L’attitude 13° 05’. I was lucky enough to MC for the event and we had a whole host of power talks. It started with Dr.YV Reddy (Governor, RBI), Mr. Sailesh Rao (Country Head, Google), Prof. Tom Anderson (Associate Dean, IIT-Chicago). Followed by a special address from Dr. Sam Pitroda and the icing on the cake was none other that Mr. Narayana Murthy (Chief Mentor, Infosys)

We also had tamil movie director Vasanth add some variety to the evening as well as a talk from Mr. Rajiv Rai. On top of all this we had many management related competitions for b-schools and corporates. Power-packed would be an understatement

Kudos to L’attitude Factory! Great show guys!!

Well, we also released our bi-annual magazine GRAVITY. The theme was “celebrating the spirit of entrepreneurship” and it who better to launch this than one of the greatest business leaders of all time- NRN. The magazine has some great articles from all the various dimensions of entrepreneurship and was well received by one and all. Needless to say, Team Gravity has done it again!

We hosted the NASMEI International Marketing Conference with professors from many of the ‘ivy league’ universities from the US. And last but not the least, the second annual Yale-Great Lakes International Research Seminar took place today.

Are you dazzled by the plethora of star-studded speakers and events we’ve had?

Don’t be…it was just another week at GREAT LAKES.

As usual, thanks for reading!

Cheers!

Floods in Chennai!!

Make no mistake -that really is what I chose to title my second and much delayed blog. I’m sure that many of you must be wondering what on earth I was thinking to come up with a word like ‘flood’ in the midst of this heat wave in our beloved Chennai.

20 missed calls is what my phone reported when I looked into it after my marketing class. Obviously, someone was desperately trying to get in touch with me. Then I get an SMS saying that ‘dude, our house is flooding! Hurry n get there’. It sounded like a prank; nevertheless, I went to my apartment only to find that it was true. After a little inspection, I found the culprit-the newly installed tap in our kitchen, it had given way and the entire flat had a thick carpet of water! Thankfully, our neighbors had turned the water supply off (wasting this amount of water would entitle capital punishment in Chennai!) The disaster management cell immediately rushed to our maid’s house and got her to come and help us clean up! The damage was minimal; all electric equipment was still functional.

I guess I needed an incident like this to make me write! I have wanted to update this blog, but our college schedule is not very conducive to blogging, or any other non-academic work for that matter!

The last few weeks have been completely draining; I am feeling the real pressure that b-schools are infamous for! From 6 hour lectures, to case study reports, Great Lakes has been very judicious with leaving us neck deep with work. But I got to give them a little credit, the faculty they have lined up has been nothing short of brilliant. So, life here is not as bad as I make it sound!

The first of our eight semesters will soon be over. Great Lakes requires one to take all the core subjects which are common for the first four semesters. After this, which one can specialize with a major and a minor coupled with industry-specific verticals. The subjects that we had to take this semester were:

• Marketing Management (Dr.Paul Prabhakar-IIT, Chicago): Brilliant! I thoroughly enjoyed his classes. To give you an idea how popular his classes are, getting seats in the front rows of class are as difficult as getting front row seats in a rock concert. I was in a little dilemma as to what my major should be, but after Dr. Prabakar’s class- I’m left with no doubt- Marketing it is!!
  His grading system, a marketing project that required us to use the various marketing tools that we were introduced to, on a company-real time. This helped us check our understanding of the tools and its practical usability. We chose Titan Industries for the project (I used to work with titan, Bangalore before my course and all my contacts there were very helpful in helping us with the data for the analysis) Still waiting for our grades! I think my group did a great job with the presentation!
• Financial Accounts (Dr. Suryasekar-Miami, Florida): Another great class! His practical approach with real examples to highlight the functions of accounting are a treat to those who were averse to finance and accounting! As most of the class consists of people with an engineering background-he really takes time to make the concepts clear and has been unbelievably patient with one and all!
• Eastern Philosophy (Dr. Venkat Krishnan): Initially, I couldn’t digest the fact that we had to study stuff like this in an MBA course But, with passage of time, I have found a liking and a sense of pride in our Indian Vedas, Upanishads and the other works. Dr. Venkat, arguably the most popular faculty here, has been amazing-but the pre-readings for his class had to be battled with heavy eyelids! The ‘karma-yoga’ project -we have to bring out a positive change in a specific set of underprivileged individuals. Our team works with a training institute for the youth called i-lead. The experience is very satisfying and I like the fact that Great Lakes is trying to promote ‘giving’ as a part of its culture.
• Chinese (Prof. Devakunjari): Hahaha! With all due respect to the Chinese folks! This language is hilarious! Can’t wait to speak it…its going to be fun. Our professor lived in China for a few years, so her insight into the Chinese culture adds to the take-away from class!
• Statistics (Prof PKV): Unparallel knowledge of the subject, actually not just this subject, PKV’s knowledge in English literature, carnatic music, economics, quality management and other subjects have been mind boggling! His antics in class add humor to an otherwise dry subject. He loves to throw his ‘googly’ at us for exams. I just hope, ‘mota-moti’ we all pass! Haha.
• Principles of Management (Prof. Ravi Nagarajan) An industry insider who adds value using his experience as the senior management of various companies. The students are divided into groups and we present the various chapters in POM. It’s a great experience as all of us have worked before and can relate various aspects from work-life to this course and its principles.

To top all this, we all are required to do an empirical study (original research) for the Yale-Great Lakes centre for learning. We have to find faculty guides and define the variables for the research which we have to publish this at the end of this year! Thinking of doing something on customer loyalty and wallet share…got to write a formal synopsis in a week!

The 165 strange faces have now become more familiar. In between all this work, we managed to go out clubbing to Speed and Dublin. Chennai night-life is nice-I’d actually underestimated it!

I’m now trying my culinary skills. My room-mates and I are pretty great cooks! For lack of a good restaurant near the college- over-cooked, salty and sometimes burnt food helps feed us! Btw…my roti’s rock-perfect circles!

I have already witnessed some of those 18-20 hour days, and college has just started! To sum it up, the past one month has been hectic yet fun-filled. Here, time stops for nobody.

Ooooops almost forgot! I’d like to thank all of you for the very kind comments on my first blog. Much obliged.

Thanks for reading!

Cheers!!

The Dive into a Great Lake!

This blog like many others is about my ‘b-school dream’ and the journey of my realization of the same. I would like to share thoughts on what, in my opinion, should be the criteria to select a b-school. Also, I want to pen down my experiences from the application to the induction phase at the Great Lakes Institute of Management, not-so-fondly known as GLIM.

 

Like millions of you out there, I too was in the dilemma of which school to choose for my management studies. The wide spread choice, only added to my confusion. That’s when I came across this relatively new institute, tucked away in one of the sleepy residential areas of Chennai. In the three years since inception, this b-school has already attained what most others can’t even dream of. From the variety of placements to the sky-rocketing pay packages, from the best of the faculty and a business advisory council that reads like the who’s who of the industry to the most up-to-date course curriculum, this place had an interesting answer to my every question. And the goodies don’t stop there; you get all this and more in half the time! It sounded like a win-win situation to me.

 

The next logical step was making the online application. For the first time, I came across a fully online application (not the ones you print out and send) I don’t know of any other institutions that have this system. I needed two recommendation letters (to be sent by post for obvious reasons) I went to my boss and requested for it. My boss was very impressed with the recommendation format, he said that any institution that has put this amount of detailing into a reco letter, is definitely worth it! It always amazes me as to how different things impress different people. The GD and PI followed shortly.

A few weeks later, I was fortunate enough to find my name on the admissions results list.

 

The next step was to get a bank loan, as I intended to self-finance my studies. The institute had a tie up with the Indian Bank, Saidapet with special interest rates. With the support of the college’s finance department, the loan was relatively hassle-free. Again, my mother was impressed with the pro-active support from the college.

 

Next, I needed to find accommodation, the college does not have a hostel, but the seniors were ever-willing to help us out with this. It took two days of roaming around in the Chennai heat to finally find a place. But it was worth it, Deepak, Ashish and I moved into Rohit’s apartment which is barely a minute’s walk from college.

 

April 20^th, 2007: Registration for the Junior Crusaders (the name of our batch)

There I was, amongst a sea of unfamiliar faces. 165 of us were welcomed with a folder with our names printed on them and schedule for the next one week all in perfect order. The registration of the certificates and the photos for the RF ID cards were all well organized, but then again, one would not expect any less from a “management” institute. Nevertheless, I was impressed!

 

 

 

 

THE INDUCTION.

 

Induction at Great Lakes is a full 10 day affair. And to kick start the process, we has an aptitude test on the very first day- and this was no ordinary aptitude test- our lives and careers depended on this. The PGPM director walked in announced the details of the test-there would be equal number of questions from marketing, finance, HR and systems. And depending on the results, we would be told what specialization to take up. A little confused and nervous, we walked into the respective exam halls and there came an exam paper that looked like Greek and Latin, never had I seen such incomprehendible language-the paper was an absolute killer. All our dreams were shattered. Maybe, I dint have aptitude for anything! The PGPM director and some of the seniors walked in saying that they were disappointed with the results and that the specializations they would call out is what we would have to take up. Everyone was screaming “no fair” and some girls even had tears rolling uncontrollably. One of the seniors walked up to the podium and in a very serious tone said that one day he would tell his grandchildren that he made a ‘bakra’ out of 165 of us!! On the projector there was a ppt slide saying “BAKRA”…the whole thing was a prank! Thank God! What a way to start the course! Well, all I can say is that we will have to better the prank next year!

 

Great Lakes is a student owned, student run organization in every sense of the term. Here, the students are the stake holders. This gives us the students the authority and the responsibility to undertake all tasks from admissions to placements, from the food committee to the honor code committee. I guess this is one of the reasons that the everyone at Great Lakes has this strong sense of belonging and pride. The seniors made presentations about all the committees that they had formed and gave us suggestions on how we should take it forward.

 

No article on Great Lakes would be complete without the mention of our Uncle Bala-the founder and honorary dean. We had the privilege to witness his contagious enthusiasm for the convocation of the senior batch and the inauguration of our batch. The event was conducted in the Chennai Trade Centre (very beautiful place) the governor of Tamil Nadu, Mr. Surjeet Singh Barnala and Mrs. Sudha Murthy presided over the event. Mrs. Murthy gave us a very inspirational talk about managers should be compassionate.

 

We had three tests on financial accountancy, micro-economics and statistics and business math. The college had couriered the study material to our homes for this test. Another indicator that these guys mean business.

This blog is getting too long…so I’m going to skip out on the details and give you all a gist of what followed.

 

I have been here for just ten days and the exposure has already been phenomenal. We have interacted with the Mr. Jamshyd Godrej (Chairman&MD Godrej), Mr. Mahandran (Godrej-Sara Lee), Mr. Shrinivas (CEO -ITC) and Mr. Ranganath (CEO Grundfos Pumps), had guest lectures from a communication expert who also does classes at the IIMs, met with an attitude consultant, a class on leadership management and change management. Went for industrial visits to ITC, Grundfos Pumps, Sundaram Clayton and Brakes India.

 

And of course, we had the ever so popular “outbound” camp. We were all taken to a beach resort on ECR…beautiful property. We were split into three groups and all us had sessions which included management and leadership games, outbound activities like blind volley ball and other fun stuff. We even had yoga, dance (salsa and jive) skits and the trip was what one can call ‘fun packed two days’. The outbound camp helped us get familiar with our batch…a batch that truly defines diversity-there is at least 1 guy from any place you can think of! There is even a guy with 14 years of work-ex, 2 medical doctors, IT professionals, HR consultants, marine engineers…this list could go on forever.

 

In between all this we had an alumini meet and the sangamitra, I must say our seniors put up an excellent show. They have set the benchmark for our performance and its very high! Hope we will be able to live up to everyone’s expectations

 

It really is impossible to put in all the stuff that happened in 10 days into a few pages- because that much happens here!!

 

I think the institute’s first name will summarize the recent events, as they all have been truly “great”!

 

I would like to thank all the CRUSADERS for all the support and wish my fellow JC’s the very best. The year ahead is going change our descriptions for the word ‘hectic’ -lets take up the challenge!

 

Thanks for reading!

Cheers!!